Not Exactly Typical
by RebelX
Summary: pg-13 for language. A year or so after the happenings of Metroid Fusion, Samus and the pirates have dissapeared. On a secluded planet near SR388, a strange object has landed. With it comes a strange creature unlike anything seen before.
1. A usual morning

Not Exactly Typical  
A Metroid Fan Fiction by RebelX  
  
Chapter One: A Usual Morning  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Nintendo or any of its stories, characters, etc. I do own everything you don't recognize. An author whose name escapes me now said it best: "Everything you recognize I don't own. Everything you don't, I do" (or something like that)  
  
Author's note: I've revised this first chapter, so if you've already read you should read it again just in case.  
  
Log 07.12.9603  
  
This is Maintenance officer 9 reporting an unusual event. This morning at approximately 10 am something broke through the atmosphere and crash-landed in sector 27. Investigation revealed the crashed object to be part of a ship. The black burn marks indicate metal was subject to some explosion before entering atmosphere. A sample was taken for study, test results are expected within the hour. Halfway through sector 27 a path of broken vegetation and predator corpses was discovered leading away from the crash site. It seems impossible that an animal could have survived re-entry or space by clinging to the metal found at the crash site, yet bio scans indicate an unknown creature to be wandering around within the proximity of the crash. Surrounding outposts and Federation HQ will be notified immediately. End Log.  
  
Lucius groaned as she sat back in her chair, her body still sore from the unexpected run back to outpost 255. She pursed her lips as she read back over what she had written. It did not mention the strange cries she had heard on her way back to the bunker, or the fact that the path of broken vegetation was two meters wide and three meters tall. Whatever was out there, it was big, it was mean, and it's screech made her blood run cold. After her second revision of the new log, she entered it into the databanks. She sagged forward with her head in her hands, her elbows resting on the computer desk. She thought over the events of the morning, if only to keep her mind off of that terrifying scream echoing inside her head.  
  
A small animal stalked through the lifeless corridors. It walked on all fours; each step made with intense purpose. The canine face was hardened with unbreakable determination. The small cross between a dog and a lizard had a mission, a job it deemed very important. Years of self- training had rendered it perfect for this self-proclaimed duty, which it performed every morning with perfection. It navigated the gray, twisting mass of corridors with ease, never pausing once. Finally it turned to a big blue door. It reared up on its scaly hind legs, reached up, and pressed a small black button. The door slid open with a hiss, and the animal entered. It readied itself to pounce, its eyes narrowing in concentration. The small clock on the bedside table turned to 9:30, and a buzzer went off. That was its cue.  
  
People were screaming everywhere as the town went up in smoke. The relentless shower of bombs did not heed them, the small colony continued being blown to bits for no reason at all. A lone girl stood in the middle of the chaos, tears streaming down her face. She had just watched the invading pirates shoot down her parents. Life suddenly seemed empty and meaningless. Her stuffed animal fell from her limp little fist and hit the dusty sand with a dull thud that echoed in the air. Dead silence followed. Not a thing stirred about her. Ruins smoked around the tiny girl, corpses were thrown about everywhere. She recognized every dead soul strewn about her, shed a tear for each of them. Her eyes closed as she hung her little golden head, the world dissolving into darkness. Then out of the gray mist there appeared a great ruby-red figure. The fuzzy outline of the dragon stooped down and looked at her dirty, tear-streaked face. It reached out with a clawed hand and gently forced her chin up. She looked into its swirling yellow eyes, tears continuing to flow from her own blue orbs. She spoke one word, her soft voice asking the question that is often the hardest to explain. The dragon could not answer. She closed her eyes as her vision turned black, the simple question still echoing in her mind. Why? Nothing would answer her. Why? Nothing could answer her. Why? The echo became a single note singing through the darkness. Then the note began to break up into stutters of song. The stutters turned into beeping, and the little girl woke up.  
  
With a jolt a human figure sat up on the cot. The animal had already leapt into the air. It sailed into her, easily knocking her off the small green cot and onto the cold metal floor. With a happy yip it started licking her face with it's forked blue tongue. "Joxer! Stop that! Get off me, you stupid git!" The animal yipped even more happily, its tail wagging with incredible speed, then complied.  
"Honestly! Every morning, the same thing! Why must you always ram me off the bed?! Is it your mission in life or something?!"  
The animal merely panted stupidly. With a roar of frustration, Maintenance Officer number 9 picked herself up off the floor and dusted herself off, then went off to have breakfast.  
  
Outpost 255, like all the outposts on R47V4K, was an unused federation research station that had had its funding pulled due to economic troubles. Like all such abandoned research centers, it was hoped that one day research would be able to continue there. That was why every outpost was assigned two maintenance officers who kept all the more important systems fully functional and the facilities maintained. These maintenance officers were usually out of work bounty hunters that wanted a job where they wouldn't have to be under the thumb of some Federation suit. As usual among bounty hunters going around in casual garb, no one knew their real names. Those names were to be connected only with the various body armors characteristic of bounty hunters nowadays. Maintenance Officer number 9 was known as Lucius, apparently the shortened version of some space pirate commander's name. Her partner in outpost 255 was Maintenance Officer number 10, who she called John. He called her Luke as a sort of joke, because it sounded like her name and she reminded him of a character in one of the ancient movies, Star Wars. Their main concerns were the life support systems, the main computer, the communication systems, the database, the security casing around the restricted research area (they were not actually allowed in any of the research areas) and the emergency systems. In their free time, however, they liked to upkeep and use the recreation area as well. Supply ships came every six months, bringing spare parts and repair equipment that they requested. Food and water was taken care of by the life support system that was their top priority to maintain.  
  
Lucius wearily made her way to the mess hall, yawning all the way. She had gotten used to her nightmares by now, and used to Joxer long before. She sat down at one of the long tables, feeling not quite ready to eat anything. She stared at the shiny surface of the smooth polished metal table, thinking about the parasite nest she would have to clear out in a few hours. The little buggers had made a good mess of the wires, disabling many of the security systems on the doors and on the main computer. That wasn't too much of a concern, considering that the unused facility didn't attract much attention from pirates or anything, but you never knew when the Federation was going to send a surprise inspection to make sure they were doing their jobs. Any parasitic infestation even in the most trivial of systems would have to be taken care of immediately.  
  
As usual at this hour of the morning, John was still asleep. Lucius couldn't really get going without her coffee, and also as usual she was too tired to get up and go get some. So the traditional occurrence of Lucius dozing off in the mess hall also took place.  
"You forgot to turn your alarm off again" a rather grouchy voice interrupted her slumber. She blinked off her sleepiness as John slid into the chair across from her. This was also traditional of a typical morning at outpost 255.  
"Oh yeah. Sorry"  
"Why do you even use the thing? You know Joxer'll wake you"  
"Nah, he won't pounce unless I'm sitting up"  
"Humph" John glared at the little dizard, who panted back up at him with the usual stupid expression.  
It was at this point in time when something unusual happened. The proximity alarm went off.  
  
Author's note: Well, I've revised this now, so it should be better. Slightly. Review! Yeah. 


	2. The unusual rear their ugly heads

Not Exactly Typical  
A metroid Fan fiction by RebelX  
  
Chapter Two: The unusual rear their ugly heads  
  
Author's note: I = lazy. Disclaimer = first chapter only. Kapeesh? Ahem...thank you to all who reviewed ( all one of you ). I would like to say now that the real connections to metroid and everything related to the Metroid games will not be noticeable for a while, so until that particular plot twist comes around those who are unfamiliar with metroid should know  
that until I say so almost everything is made up except the Federation  
itself and some obscure references to space pirates and bounty hunters. Also note that I have made changes to the first chapter, so if you read it  
a while ago you should reread it. And review, too.  
  
~ Alert type 58; time 10:03 am date 07.12.9603 ~  
Proximity alert  
Unidentified object has brought unknown life form to planet surface.  
Investigate immediately. Crash site located in sector 27, coordinates  
targeted in scanner.  
  
John shook his head as he finished reading the printout from the alert system.  
"Who's gonna go?"  
"I will. Joxer could use a walk" Lucius strapped on the wrist- mounted scanner as she spoke, her tone bored and tired.  
"You sure? You don't seem to really have woken up yet"  
"I'll be fine. Just get me coffee"  
With another shake of the head, John obliged while Lucius finished gearing up for the outing. She had equipped herself with two small S blasters, one hanging from each side of her belt; the scanner, a small square device resembling a cross between a palm pilot and a radio; and a leash for Joxer. John promptly came back and handed her a cup of brown liquid.  
"Do you want any sug- "  
Lucius downed the entire contents of the mug before he could even finish his sentence.  
"Never mind then"  
  
With a yawn, Lucius stepped out of the compound. The morning sun gently warmed her back as she crossed the small field surrounding the bunker. The misty light glinted off the tiny drops of morning dew that covered the lush grass of the field. Small exotic flowers dotted the gently sloping hill, and small alien birds whizzed through the air above. All in all the meadow had a feeling of pristine beauty that lay in stark contrast to the jungle beyond. Dark, foreboding, and overgrown, the jungle was not somewhere anyone cared to wander about at 10 o'clock in the morning. The outpost caretakers avoided the jungle whenever they could but this was difficult to do, as it expanded from sector 22 to 42 lengthwise, and from sector 22 to 29 widthwise. The sector system was based on a kind of grid that spanned the entire continent. The first number of a sector came from the left, vertical line of the grid. The second came from the bottom horizontal line. Starting from zero at the lower left hand corner of the grid, the numbers progressed upwards numerically to 9. The continent was small, and each sector measured only a mile square. There were 81 sectors in all. Upon reaching the meadow's edge, Lucius took out her left S blaster. S blasters, commonly just called spikes, were small, silenced plasma shooters with one oddity. On the bottom of the handle there was a curved metal spike that could extend into a scythe not unlike those wielded by the space pirates. This made the weapon ideal for outdoor work, as it cleared away underbrush with ease. There were no trails in the jungle, and one had to rely only on their scanners (which included a triangulation system for pinpointing their exact location on a map) to keep from getting lost. This is why Lucius was surprised when she found a giant path of trampled, crushed, and slightly burned vegetation stretching two meters wide and cutting up three meters into the jungle canopy. At first she thought it had been made by the unidentified object's crash landing, but upon glancing at her scanner decided that this could not be so. The vegetation had been crushed in the direction opposite that of the crash site's coordinates. Lucius ran a quick bio scan and found the unknown life form was moving away from her in direct line with the trampled section. It was obvious that this creature was the cause of the destruction, which led Lucius to wondering what kind of animal it could possibly be. All she could tell was that it was large and had either been moving very fast or had some access to fire. By following the trail of carnage she figured she'd find the crash site with ease, but the farther she went up along it the more puzzled she became. The destruction was becoming less widespread, the cleared path shrinking steadily from 3 meters to 2 meters and on until it was barely a foot both width and length-wise. It resembled the path of a high speed object crashing at a low angle in every way, except that the trampled vegetation lay in the wrong direction. Soon she found herself cutting her way through the thick jungle again, the path now so small there was barely room for even little Joxer. The trail had just disappeared entirely when she happened upon the object of her expedition. A smoking crater lay before her, though it was exceedingly small. It was almost unusually so, considering the speeds objects could reach when entering an atmosphere. The crashed object was actually more than one jagged sheet of thick metal, all roughly larger than her torso. The pieces had obviously been assembled at some time, and she couldn't understand how such a large object could leave such a small crater, but put the thought aside as she checked it for dangerous radiation. Upon finding it safe, she got a little closer and examined it thoroughly. The objects were surprisingly light for their size, none heavier than a full grown man. For most people this would still be a considerable burden, but most bounty hunters were able to lift twice that much with ease. Lucius, being like most bounty hunters, had no trouble lifting and carrying one of the things on her back. Indeed, its bulk posed more of a problem than its weight, but after shifting it a few times this too was rectified. She had chosen the one that had had some remnants of an engraving on it, though it was too burned to decipher with the naked eye. This particular piece was smaller and easier to carry as well, and with it tucked under her arm she headed back to the outpost. On her way back she saw something she hadn't noticed before. Dotted among the singed and broken jungle growth were the corpses of various animal life, mainly predators. The only marks of violence on the bodies were in the stomach area, which had been cleanly cut open. The flesh alongside the cut was seared as if by an old blow torch, and the insides seemed to be missing. Feeling slightly sick (only slightly, she had seen plenty of nasty things in her time) she hurried on, calling Joxer away from the corpse he was sniffing. She had barely gone a few feet more when a hideous scream filled the air, chilling her to the bone. It was not the cry of a distressed or frightened animal, but a great roar of pain and rage that tore through the jungle. Dozing birds quickly took to flight at that awful noise, and in a sense so did Lucius, with Joxer far in the lead.  
  
Upon reaching the outpost they placed her sample into the analyzer and waited for results. While they were waiting Lucius filled John in with what she had happened then sat down to type up the unusual events log. She looked up now as a faint beeping broke into her recollections of the day, and quickly exited the chair to see what was up.  
  
A/N: Well? Getting interesting now, huh? If you would like to learn more about how I imagine their technology to work (ie: the triangulation thing or just the scanner in general) feel free to e-mail me at midg3t2000@yahoo.com, which is my more business type e-mail. If you'd like to just chat with me or something though, use the e-mail listed in my profile. That is all. 


	3. And then it just got weird

Not Exactly Typical  
A fan fiction by RebelX  
  
Chapter 3: And then it just got weird.  
  
Author's note: Most of this chapter will be a recap on the metroid games, so you experienced gamers can scroll past that part if you want. Just make sure you read the beginning, which adds to the atmosphere and sets up part of the plot quite nicely, and once you see a big line, everything from that point until the dotted line (- - ) will be a recap on the Metroid games. I'll be as accurate as I can, but I have an unfortunate habit of dressing things up a bit. Hey, that's what writers do though, right? Anyway, when you see the dotted line (- - - ) the official stuff is over and then pure conjecture takes over. That's all, folks!  
  
-Emergency-  
Proximity breach detected in sector 27.  
Atmospheric security compromised.  
Unknown bioforms detected in sectors 26 and 27  
Unauthorized vessel has landed in sector 27  
INVESTIGATE IMMEDIATELY  
  
"Huh? Another one?" John's brow furrowed as he read the printout.  
"Wait.does it say bioforms? As in the plural of bioform?"  
"Yup"  
"But there was only one a few minutes ago!"  
"Must be from the unauthorized vessel"  
"I hate to burst your bubble, but these alerts are always in chronological order"  
"Uh.well.let's just check the surveillance history" Lucius turned back to the computer and brought up the surveillance program. She promptly located the proximity breach records, then played the clip for that morning. A map of the continent appeared on the screen. Sector 27 flashed, and the camera zoomed in on it. A blinking orange dot appeared near the top, and a label of its velocity appeared next to it. It slowly blipped to the right for an inch or two, then stopped moving. A smaller blue dot appeared on top of it, with a label of "unidentified bioform". It moved to the left at a slow, halting pace. Right at the edge of the sector it began blinking rapidly, and a second label appeared reading "unidentified activity". It stopped suddenly and began moving down. A second dot came out from under it and crossed the line into sector 26.  
"What the hell?! Did that thing just reproduce?"  
"I think the computer would have recognized that activity. Besides, Giving birth or hatching from eggs takes a lot longer than that.  
"It seems to have picked up an abnormal decibel reading when the dot split into two or whatever-"  
"Nice terminology"  
"Shaddup. Seriously though, do you think that was the scream you heard?"  
"Maybe." The dots continued moving, the first going down and the second going to the left.  
"Wait.is that thing heading where I think it is?"  
"Aw shit.it's heading right for us"  
"Then that proximity alert-" The two bounty hunters looked at each other, the effects of this appalling revelation apparent in their expressions.  
"Shit!" They cursed in sync before darting to the weapons room to gear up.  
"That damn computer really needs to be more specific!" Lucius muttered as she armed a plasma rifle.  
"No kidding." John quickly activated his wrist scanner and set it to surveillance mode. Two blinking red dots appeared on either side of two blue ones in the center of the radar.  
"What the hell?!" cried Lucius as she dialed up her radar and got the same thing.  
"Don't tell me that thing.reproduced again!"  
"Alright, so now what do we do?"  
"Well according to protocol we inform the federation of the disturbance and sit back and wait until they come check things out"  
"Yeah, right, then they can go beg Samus Aran to deal with it since they don't have a clue what to do."  
"Heh. You got that right. Seriously though, I'll go 'inform them of the disturbance' while you keep an eye on these things here. We'll meet in the results lab, and hopefully we'll have enough time to look at the analysis of that metal before these things get to us."  
"Right, you do that. I'll go spy on the closer one. If I'm not in the result lab in half an hour, make it a nice funeral"  
"Can nice be translated as inexpensive?"  
"..Shaddup."  
  
Samus Aran. The very name struck fear into the hearts of space pirates and humans alike. The legendary bounty hunter had brought the space pirates to their knees more than once. The fall of the space pirates was entirely Aran's doing, and this is how it happened.  
  
It had all begun with the coming of the space pirates. At first they were simply nameless raiders who attacked hapless trade caravans. The media, not knowing their proper name or even what species they were, branded them "Space pirates", and the name stuck. They presented quite a problem to the federation, for as they hindered trade they hurt the economy. To solve this problem, the federation enlisted bounty hunters to fight them. One of these bounty hunters immediately began to stick out. Samus Aran. No one knew what Samus looked like under that suit, but it was generally assumed that he was a male human (though some suspected him of being a machine). Samus completed tasks that seemed impossible to others, took on jobs that no other bounty hunter would touch with a ten foot pole. He became a legend among bounty hunters, though the public had not yet heard of him. All this business with the space pirates seemed relatively unimportant to the general population, and at the time it was quite trivial. But then something happened that changed all that.  
  
On a wild planet named SR388, Federation scientists suddenly discovered a new life form. The metroid. It was a small creature that resembled a green beach ball with four fangs coming out the bottom and a pulsating red nucleus inside. It made a strange, somewhat strangled sounding screech that went something like: "squee!" Though it did not look too dangerous, it was found to be the one of the most deadly life forms man had ever encountered. It would latch onto its victim with its fangs, and drain the very energy of life out of them. How it did this and what this "life energy" was exactly, no one knew. The scientists couldn't explain it. The creature left its victims no more than motionless figures, and when disturbed this shell of what once was the victim would crumble into a pile of dust. And that was only what the larval form of this thing could do. The scientists, having successfully captured a few of the creatures, were bringing the specimens back to Federation headquarters when something very bad happened. They were attacked by space pirates.  
The pirates immediately recognized the potential the metroids had as biological weapons, and promptly seized a nearby planet by the name of Zebes and made a base there where they could study the creatures. The Federation was horrified by the idea of a weapon such as a metroid in the hands of the pirates, and attacks on planet Zebes began immediately. Many troops of both mercenaries and professional soldiers were sent to recover the metroids. None returned. That's when Samus Aran volunteered for the job. He planned to infiltrate the pirate defenses and destroy their base completely, but he would work for a high price. And he would work alone. The general public thought he must surely be insane, the Federation considered him a dead man, and even the other bounty hunters believed that an entire planetary base chock full of metroids and who knows what else was too much for him. He proved them all wrong.  
He infiltrated the base, defeated their two top generals (Ridley and Kraid), went on to beat their leader, Mother Brain, then utterly destroyed their facilities with a time bomb. The public was astounded. The bounty hunters were all in awe. The Federation was ecstatic that the problem had finally been dealt with and made a big ceremony out of giving him his money. At that ceremony they all received the biggest shock of all. Samus Aran, for the first time in public, took off his helmet. And he was a she.  
This was not the end of Samus' marvelous career, but the beginning, as it turned out. Some of the pirates had fled to a backup base on Talon IV, and she pursued them there and shut them down again. Then, on the request of the federation, she went to the metroid's home world of SR388 and completely eradicated the species so that no one could use them for ill ever again. She hunted down and destroyed each and every one, then killed their queen so that there would be no more. But after she had done that a funny thing happened. She found a single egg that had escaped destruction. It hatched right before her eyes, and the metroid within saw Samus and mistook her for its mother. It followed her like a confused child. She did not kill it. Rather, she took it to a small Federation research colony (named Ceres) where they could study it. She had barely left the colony when she received a distress signal from them. They were under attack. Guess who?  
The space pirates were alive, kicking, and stealing the metroid larva. Or at least one space pirate was: Ridley, the right hand dragon of Mother Brain. Samus promptly returned and fought him, but he escaped after setting the colony to self destruct (don't worry, all the scientists were already dead by then anyways). Samus followed him to Zebes only to find that the pirates had rebuilt their base and returned in force. This time they had two additional generals (Phantoon and Draygon) but Samus defeated them all just the same. Then Samus destroyed Mother Brain (this time reducing her to a pile of dust) and blew up the entire planet. It is not quite clear to the public what happened on Zebes, but when Samus came back she told the Federation that the metroid larva was dead.  
After that final fall of the space pirates on Zebes, they disappeared from the eye of the public. A few could still be found managing crime rings here and there, but they were rounded up easily enough. Samus Aran continued doing odd jobs for the federation, but these were all dull and boring and also no longer interested the public. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
  
With the fall of the space pirates, bounty hunters everywhere lost work. Even Samus could barely find jobs. As a thank you to the work they had done during the space pirate crisis, the Federation found a unique way to supply bounty hunters with jobs that would suit them. They made them caretakers of research outposts they no longer had the money to keep completely operational. And you know the story from there.  
  
A/N: HA! Now people who are unfamiliar with the game have no excuse! You must all review! VUAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *cough cough* uh.review? *makes puppy dog eyes* pwease? 


End file.
